SPECIAL A WAKE UP CALL REPORT by Helen O'Daly RN
TH E NEWSLETTER OF THE AMERICAN RADIOLOGICAL NURSES ASSOCIATI ON
July, 2001
VOLUME 6
NUMBER3
SPECIAL
REPORT
RADIOLOGY
NURSE
HELPLINE
starts on p. 5
ASSESSMENT
TOOLS
AVAILABLE¡¤¡¤
see "Try This", p. 3
THE BEAT GOES
ON - "CRN GOTTA HA VE IT"
seep. 7
A WAKE UP CALL
by Helen O'Daly RN
There is a national nursing shortage . Docs that come as a shock to you? It is the
reason why your staff positions remain unfilled. It is a fact of life that nurs es have
a physically and mentally demanding job. Before I go much fu rther I want to say
that this sho1tage is not affecting Minnesota very much. In collecting data for this
issue of RN N!'ws I noticed material submitted by several Rad iology Nurses from
Minnesota. Out of curiosity I took out my 2000-2001 ARNA Mem bership
Directory and counted the members from Minnesota - 48' I am surprised. I live
in the most heavily populated state in the nation and we do not have q ui te that
many members in the New Jersey Chapter. Now I must get to my po int - I wan t to
ackn owledge the e-mails I received from India S. Luke (one of the Minnesota
Radi o logy Nurses) who has helped me bring myself up to date on some impo rtant
issues which arc mentioned in this article.
Allegedly the shortage exists because of several factors . One is the lack of appeal
of nu rs ing as a profession to younger people. Why should they want to work in a
field with such demands and non-commensurate compensation? They can go to
school for less time and start in a computer related field earn ing more from the
outset, without the risks of exposure to disease and musculoskeletal injuries. A
second factor is the numhcr of working nurses who entered the fie ld during the
60's and early 70 's. They comprise the "Baby Boorners", a large group that
entered the workforce, many of who did so because of the Women's Lihcration
movement. There has been a tremendous decline 111 the number of newly
registered nurses in the past I0 to 15 years. A third factor is the impending
retirement of these nurses that will begin in the next few years . The 20-year-old
nurse who began working in 1965 will turn 65 in 20 I 0. T hat sou nds to me like
retirement is w ithin reach but it can be a mixed blessing - who will be there to take
care of the elderly population when we arc gone from the workforce? More
importantly, who is going to take care of us?
I have been chagrined at the lack of media coverage of this problem but it is
hcginning to catch up now . Just yesterday ou r local newspaper printed a "Letter to
the Editor" from a "recent college graduate", a nurse whose aim was to educate the
public about the shortage and related issues (she concentrated on how in the life
cycle we ALL will '¡¤pass through the hands of a nurse'') . Incredibly, facing this
letter on the opposite page was a commentary o n how the state university has failed
to do its part rn promoting nurse education ("currently, nursmg students arc
crowded into a small home on a residential
contin11 1'd 011 I'¡¤ 2
RN NEWS
VOLUM E 6, NUMBER 1
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
In the mi dst of th e sunrn1cr mon th s, many of us may be enjoying some special time w ith
o ur fami li es and fri ends doing all th ose g reat summer activit ies like boati ng, hi kin g, trips
to the beach or just pla in relax ing in your backyard - or someo ne else 's ! For those of us
chancre
to our
in the hea lthcare fiel d, the summe r months also often bri rw si o11ifico11t
.
0
wo rk envi ron ments : new res idents, staff movi ng to new pos itions , new attendin gs ,
sc heduled vac ations that req uire cove ring those who arc off doin g a ll those great
act ivit ies 1just ment ioned while you are NOT!
Th is reall y all boils down to the subject of teamwork. It is truly the essence of how our
de partments func ti on if we arc to approach the positi ve pat ien t outcomes fo r which we
strive . In any given week, the radiology nursing staff may wo rk w ith many dUfercnt
te ams with in their own department (CT, MRI, IR, UIS, Nuclear Medicine, etc .) and
c onsequentl y must develop an unde rstanding of the team dynamics that influence the
o utc o me of patient care. Very few teams function ident ic all y so, w ithout consciously
thinking about it, you arc probab ly us ing an arma ment of cop ing ski ll s to contin ue to
coord inate care within teams and for the b roader scope o f the Radiology team .
As new tea m members arrive, the re is most certainly a learnin g curve both w ith regard to
sk ill s, both those they bring with them and those that need to be learned, and, o nce again,
fo r hoth the new and not-so-new membe rs to deve lop an un derstand in g of each othe rs '
professional skills as well as their int erpersonal skills . In any team sett ing, the memhers'
goa ls must be to achi ew a com mon objective and, in the process, exchange experi ences
and ideas, while res pect in g each o ther's contrihutions in the achievement of that
objective . Team members must comm it to part ici pating in discussions by learning to
e ffectivel y communicate with each othe r even though they have d ifferent duties and
func tions and may he at different levels w ith in the organizati on .
Beyond th e concept of the teams wi thi n which we work eve ryd ay, is the realit y of our
ARNA team . Your comm itment as a member of ARNA dec lares your desire to he a part
o f th is team . We all come from varied backgrounds bot h personally and professional ly,
but it is through the cnrnmo n bo nd of our profess ional organization that we a lert the
heal thcare professional world of our ded icat ion to our missi on and goals . ARNA's team
has had a profoun d effect on the practice of rad iological nursing in the past twenty years
and we still have much wo rk to do . Re proud o f you r membe rship in a team that
promotes the highest quality pati ent care in tic diagnostic and therapeutic imaging
environment'
~
~
Col leen M . Sasso, RN, RSN, CRN
P res ident , ARNA
PS . If you would li ke to vo lu nteer to work at the national level of you r ARNA team,
please contact th e ARNA office.
HAVE AGREAT SUMMER!!!
PAGE 2
WAKE UP CALL
cont 'dfro111 p. l
New
street
1n
Brunswick" (The Home
N e ws
T ribu ne,
East
Brunswick, New Jersey,
July 8, 2001, pp . A IOA l l ).
I know th is
si tuation wou ld be a
T he
turnoff for me !
com m en tary went on to
mention
an
expected
sh o rta ge
of
17 ,000
nurses in New Jersey " in
a few years".
After reading t his article,
you may be surprised, as
I was, to le arn that
several state legis latures
have been "workin g"
since J997 on legislation
to
add ress
work
co nditi ons
th at
have
r esulted
from
the
shortage, e. g., mandatory
ove rti me has beco me a
big co ncern. The w heels
of p rog ress turn ever so
slowly. Some of these
states arc Massach usetts,
O r egon,
Tennessee,
Wash in gton, C alifornia,
Co nn ect icut ,
Indiana,
M aine, Maryland, New
Jersey,
Nevada,
New
York and West Virgin ia.
1 looked in to the status of
some of these bil ls.
What I saw w as th at they
were tabled in m o st
cases,
or
vetoed
continued on p. 6
VOLUME 6. NUMl3ER 1
RN NEWS
RADIOLOGY NURSE Helpline
(continued from page 5)
Deep sedation in Radiology - a question and
some ad vice
Conscious sedation in the Radiology Dept/Endo
Oept/Cath Lab is very popular. Th e goal is to do
ou r procedures and make our patients as
comfortable as possible.
The one aspect of
sedation we may be overlooking is the ability for
the patient to go into a deep sedation, or to
purposefully give sedation to achieve a deep
sedation. We as Rad iology nu rses need to be
careful that we fo llow hospital policy on deep
sedation and if you r hospital does not have a
deep sedation policy then I would recommend
one be added. The anesthesiology dept in your
facil ity ultimately has the final say in what is
acceptable in you r area, but be ca reful that your
nursing license allows you to do what is asked of
you. JCAHO has guidelines to follow.
We
should not allow ourselves to practice unsafely.
In some of our cases a nurse anesthetist may be
needed to achieve the goal for sedation for our
patients. I would like to hear from you as to the
practice of deep sedation in your facility . We are
currently updating our policy to even cover deep
sedation. It is one thing to accidentally achieve
deep sedation but to purposefully give deep
sedation is a question we need to ask ourselvesls thi s safe for ou r patients without anesthesia
personnel? Thanks for your input.
FROM THE
EDITOR'S DESK
!\s you read the qu ................
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